Whoa, Black Betty

What is it with these 'black-something' bands? I just realized how many I listen to. It's like a trend or something. 

The Black Angels

The Black Crowes

Black Flag

The Black Keys

Black Moth Super Rainbow

Black Mountain

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club 

Black Sabbath

Blackfoot

And my friend Matt just turned me on to a really awesome Canadian outfit called Black Pistol Fire (which is what got me thinking about this in the first place).

Meanwhile, for the opposite side, I can only think of The White Stripes and Whitesnake offhand. 

I'm Working On The Railroad, I Dig Away The Time

Man, I forgot about this. The following pictures are of a Lionel train layout that I built in my room in high school. I set this up a couple years at Christmas, and it was kind of an engineering feat as it was only about 4' by 6', but got a decent run in by having much of the track run under my bed at the time. 

Looking back, I managed to cram a decent amount into this little layout. The town, some operating accessories, two separate loops of track and two sidings; I think I did alright.

The unfortunate part is that these are the only pictures of it I managed to save. Somewhere there's some video and supposedly some pictures my grandfather took but I have no idea where to find that. 

Speaking of which, my grandfather was actually pretty impressed by how I designed the thing. It was built with extensions on either side that folded up on hinges to make it easy to put away. 

There's also no going back and setting it up, either. My room is no more; my mom converted it to a craft workshop sometime after I moved into my grandparents' place. And I've been setting up the big layout my grandfather and I used to when I was a kid. I think I featured that in at least one post here on the blorg. 

I Saw The Lizard On The Red Brick Wall

I haven't been to a concert in a while. 

The Gotobeds

That's fixed now. The last two shows I've seen have been Black Mountain and Graveyard at Mr. Smalls; and (yeah, this is a thing) 'Mac Sabbath', a McDonald's-themed Black Sabbath cover band. Both were last year - the only shows I went to all last year. But as soon as I found out GBV was gonna return to Pittsburgh this April, I had to go. 

Guided By Voices

Better yet, I managed to talk a friend into going with me for the first time. When I saw the 'original' lineup at Mr. Smalls on the tour for Cool Planet, nobody was free; and when they came to Spirit in Lawrenceville a few years later, I didn't really press anyone on coming because it didn't seem enough people were interested. The hurdle this time was that the show was scheduled on my sister's birthday. That was awkward, but me and the folks made it work. 

And I am so glad it did work out, because the show was a blast. Better yet, the opening act was a Pittsburgh punk rock band that I'd been wanting to see called The Gotobeds. They were pretty damn wild, and the lead guitarist managed to trip, fall, and snap the headstock off his guitar. But they still sounded good. I'm less familiar with their second and third albums, but everything I've heard off them I've liked.